More and more I appreciate the fact that I will die before this cultural decay becomes so bad that the underpinnings of society fail. I feel bad for my daughter and her children because they will inherit....A Brave New World.

Intellectually superior Alphas are the top-dogs. Servile, purposely brain-damaged Gammas, Deltas and Epsilons toil away at the bottom. The lower orders are necessary in BNW because Alphas - even soma-fuelled Alphas - could allegedly never be happy doing menial jobs.

It's funny. Just yesterday, I was thinking that Paterson might turn to Caroline just to avoid picking from several actual NY pols who want the appointment, the selection of one would offend the other.

No NY Dem would publicly object the selection of Caroline, although like others have already commented, it seems a bit ridiculous, confirmation that we have moved to dynastic politics: Kennedy, Bush, Clinton, Gore, Romney, et al ad nauseum.

She is the author of four books. The titles of the first two make it clear what her biggest single political priority is likely to be:

In Our Defense: The Bill of Rights in Action (1991)

and

The Right to Privacy (1995).

Frankly after decades of creeping governmental intrusion augmented by the past few years of Patriot I and II and other laws restricting freedom, I would welcome seeing a person with those kinds of priorities enter the Senate.

She has also established the 'profile in courage' award to give to someone who has stood up in the face of sometimes violent opposition to stand for principle.

She also serves on the boards of numerous institutions and foundations.

She never has run for office, however, having chosen to devote her time to raising three children.

Now, can anyone here tell me exactly why she isn't qualified to be a U.S. Senator? I believe she is highly qualified, probably more so than a lot of the people who presently are in the Senate were when they became Senators.

Gov Paterson has some tough considerations. Many that weigh strongly against selection of another Jew (Gov. he replaced , Mayor of NYC, other Senator all NYC Jews) or making the power structure of New York tilt even more to NYC. Or putting a Manhattan celebrity in office.

Paterson represents a State of 19 & 1/4 million. A good part of that State resents NYC, Manhattan glitterati, and Jews (8% of New Yorkers) having too much power.

Two Upstaters not mentioned much by NYC-based national media - which focus on NYC-based contenders, are the black mayor of Buffalo and Kirsten Gillibrand the Centrist (and young & good-looking Congresswoman) from eastern Upstate NY.

Gillibrand is popular with Independents and Republicans as well as Dem Catholics and should have broad statewide appeal in a special election. Born in the Albany area, magna cum laude Dartmouth graduate, UCLA Law, clerked US 2nd Circuit of Appeals, just had her 2nd child..

Gillibrand is a member of the Blue Dog Coalition.[3] She strongly opposes gun control.[4] She is a strong advocate of 2nd Amendment rights. She supports extending the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts; stem cell research; and the Children's Health and Medicare Protection Act. [2] Gillibrand opposes attempts to partially privatize Social Security.[3] She strongly supported passage of the 2008 Farm Bill. Gillibrand broke with former Governor Eliot Spitzer on the issue of illegal immigration, opposing his plan to issue New York State drivers licenses to illegal immigrants.

Dig on her is her having only started her 2nd term in Congress, though she had 4 years at HUD as counsel to Andrew Cuomo, focusing on revitalization of cities.

Byron Brown, black mayor of Buffalo, is a hardcore liberal. But he is the 1st black to hold district office in New York outside NYC. His name has come up as a "black selection" in case Illinois doesn't do a black replacement for Obama. But Paterson has said that race would be a small, if any factor in his selection. Brown also may be a difficult Statewide candidate to select in 2010.

Caroline is probably better than the other Democrats mentioned. She already has a song written about her,(as did Linda McCartney).But why is it now Caroline KENNEDY ?I thought she used the name Caroline Kennedy SCHLOSSBERG.Is the press trying to tell the public that the marriage is winding down?(I notice that Cuomo's ex-wife, one of Bobby Kennedy's daughters, now uses the Kennedy name.)

If somehow, someway a herd of population can think that the ya'betcha hockey mom can be vice president then I fail to see any argument whatsoever for Caroline to be a senator. It is, by the way, for all the state's rights inhabitants from the few remaining Bush legacy states who are up in 2nd amendment arms over the possibility, a New York decision and one that, if memory serves me, a governor appointment. This of course reinforces the contention that Governors are an important post and republicans as well as democrats are mindful that state executive elections carry the weight that they do in factors other than running the state.

What part of this don't you get? What part of educated, philanthropic and smart is abhorrent?....oh right, you prefer the Tina Fey lookalike.

Ya'betya ass Caroline is decent and well meaning person. Name someone you like better but enough of the monarchy crap. It is so, dare I say, Alaskan sticks boring.

I live in Ithaca so unfortunately I rub shoulders with our future rulers, the snots of Cornell, and I don't understand on what basis they are so presumptuous: because they're all uniformly tall?; because they're all upper clahss?; because they all scored high on the SAT? I seriously don't get it. But I know that their perfumed asses are going to be sitting on our heads forever.

Absolutely...Oprah would make the perfect president...understands business and will protect its interests...knows all the issues...good communicator...tough as nails...put her on the Supreme Court, then she can run in 2016 or be VP in 2012.

But it is a mistake to think that because someone thinks Ms. Kennedy is unqualified that that person automatically thinks Ms. Palin is qualified.

"Absolutely...Oprah would make the perfect president...understands business and will protect its interests...knows all the issues...good communicator...tough as nails...put her on the Supreme Court, then she can run in 2016 or be VP in 2012."

Ugh. You're forgetting that Oprah became a billionaire by being an misery vampire and preying on the basest, crudest emotionalism of millions of American women. Oprah has done a lot of damage to the strength of America by turning so many of her viewers into weepy emotional cripples.

Oprah has done a lot of damage to the strength of America by turning so many of her viewers into weepy emotional cripplesOprah was just the medium. American stoicism went out the window soon after the JFK funeral.

Actually, SK had a value of 0 from 1960 to 1962, and a value 2 from 1966 to 1968, so SK conservation has on rare occasions been violated. In addition, since SKs usually spin left (at least since 1960), there's no parity conservation either.

An officer in the Mexican army of Santa Ana kept a diary. In the diary, he recorded that Davy Crockett and several other Texans had surrendered. After their surrender, Santa Ana had them shot. The Texans like to believe that Texans died to the last man defending the Alamo, and Mexicans don't like to believe that they shoot POW's. Thus the the myth of the Alamo remains intact. The brave Texans died to the last man to bring freedom and chattel slavery to Texas....Something similar seems to be going on with Camelot. There were many bad decisions and sordid affairs associated with Kennedy's tenure. The reporters and historians feel no great urgency to report them, and the people feel no great wish to read about them. You don't have to go to church to absorb myths and superstitions.....I'm at a considerable emotional and chronological remove from Camelot. Even so, I hope that Caroline serves as Senator. I get the sense that she represents all the good things that we wanted to believe about the legacy of JFK.

"An officer in the Mexican army of Santa Ana kept a diary. In the diary, he recorded that Davy Crockett and several other Texans had surrendered."

Said Diary is a fake. Written after the Alamo and "discovered" in the 20th Century. In any case, the Mexicans didn't know Crockett was at the Alamo when they attacked, didn't know what he looked like, and its doubtful they even knew who Davy Crockett was - or cared.

Caroline keeps the curse broken because to my knowledge she didn't have political aspirations. However, I suspect that if she has a successful bid for the Junior Senate seat of New York, you may see the end of that line of Kennedys afterall. What a shame that these people don't understand that politics has been the harbinger of their doom. Or they did and just don't care.

I'm a New York voter and I think this is the best choice of those being discussed. She;s done a tremendous amount with New York public schools, works extremely hard, and I think she'd be a very effective Senator.

The moron who is saying "selected, not elected" obviously doesn't realize that there is an election in 2010 for this seat and again in 2012. They'll have 2 opportunities in less than 4 years to be elected.